What Is a Hung Parliament? What Does It Mean for Britain?

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Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain suffered a humiliating setback in the 2017 general election. Her opponent Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, re-energized his party and altered the landscape of British politics. So what's next?Published OnJune 9, 2017CreditImage by Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mrs. May is still the prime minister. But her position has now become very precarious.

Mrs. May said on Friday that, despite the loss of at least 12 Conservative seats, she planned to stay in power and would form a minority government with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

The prime minister announced her decision after visiting Buckingham Palace around 12:30 p.m. to inform the queen, who generally does not get involved in party politics but must give her nod to the formation of any government.

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A statue of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in front of the Houses of Parliament in London on Friday.CreditMarkus Schreiber/Associated Press

Mrs. May’s decision could mean a coalition government in which other parties get some seats in the cabinet, or more likely it could mean a “confidence and supply” arrangement, in which smaller parties agree to support Mrs. May in exchange for her support on specific policy goals they hold dear. Those parties would not get cabinet seats, though.

But she could face hostility from larger parties like the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party, which are left-leaning and anti-Brexit. If it becomes clear that a majority of Parliament members are unlikely to support Mrs. May, the Cabinet Manual states that she would be expected to resign.

What would happen if Theresa May resigned?

If Mrs. May failed to form a Conservative-led coalition government, the second-largest party in Parliament, the Labour Party, would then have the right to try to form a power-sharing government of its own.

That could mean Labour would offer potential cabinet seats or its own “confidence and supply” deals to smaller parties.

It might find a receptive audience in the Scottish National Party or the Liberal Democrats, but that is by no means certain. Both are more strongly opposed to Brexit than Labour and would probably demand concessions on that and other issues.

If the Labour Party succeeded in forming a government, then Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader derided by critics as a far-left radical, would become the next British prime minister. That seemed deeply unlikely at the start of this campaign.

Has this ever happened before?

Yes, it has. The general election in 2010 produced a hung Parliament, which led, after intense negotiations, to the country’s first coalition government since World War II.

That coalition brought together the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, which differed on many issues, in an awkward alliance led by Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative.

That coalition government remained in power until the Conservatives won an outright majority of 331 seats in the 2015 election. That majority has now been lost.